Monthly Archives: March 2011

So 11.04 will drop in a few weeks. With it will be the desktop version of Unity, the little bar on the left of the screen that will control your apps. Those of you using docks (like Docky) will make an easy transition to Unity. I used it on an Alpha release, and liked that, so the new version should work fine.

We did hear word this week that Ubuntu 11.04 will end the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. UNR, basically, is Unity on a netbook. So I guess Canonical will not end UNR, but simply fold it into Ubuntu. Makes sense too, to try and reduce confusion for which version to use. When you already see Edubuntu (which was sort of folded into Ubuntu), Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and others, you want to reduce confusion. Since Unity will support netbooks, desktops, and tablets, it makes a lot of sense to move all instances to 11.04. I will be excited to see the finished product, as I really like the Alpha I ran. I can only assume the finished product will work even smoother.

By now, you all noticed the disaster in Japan. I usually do not like to get up on a soapbox and ask you to contribute to anything, but I think, with so many people displaced, a simple $10 can help so much. So pull out your mobile phone, text REDCROSS to 90999. Very simple. They will respond with a confirmation, and then add $10.00 to your monthly phone bill. Very easy, and it can help so much.

Yeah, that did not take long. I could not take the stock instance of Android, or more how Viewsonic locked it down. No Market, not many widgets, no Flash, and a horrid basic desktop. So the only choice was which ROM to add. I first went with putting ClockworkMod on to root it. Pretty easy. I think decided out of all the options (and there are a lot–Google gTab ROMs), to go with TnT Lite. Found a great video on the ClockworkMod and TnT Lite:

Following the video, I faced no problems. Super simple and works. And now? How does the gTab perform now? WOW! Super speedy, YouTube works, full Android Marketplace, and ANGRY Birds. I really am enjoying the gTab now!

So I decided to purchase some tablets for our tech staff to beginning working with. With my views of Apple, we decided on some entry-level Android tablets, and decided on the $290 Archos 101 tablet. We wanted to get some in the hands of our instructional technology and technical staff to begin seeing the likelihood of tablets in the classroom. Lots of technical things to look at, wireless connectivity, authentication, etc, so time to begin taking a look.

Archos, you may know, is a company with some good mp3 and video players. I always respected what they did, and from the reviews of their tablets, the 101 seemed like a good bet. So my basic review will follow, and we will post more later as we use them more. First thing is I do not mind their stock Android instance as much as the Viewsonic. It seems speedy enough and does not have a bunch of real estate with lousy widgets. The form factor is thinner than the Viewsonic, in fact, pretty thin indeed, so I worry about how durable these would be in kids’ hands. This also comes with the Android Market place, whereas the Viewsonic did not. So some advantages and disadvantages to it, but that’s what we’re looking at–trying to find a good model we can deploy in schools. More to come…

Archos also recently announced a cheaper line of tablets, Arnova. Will be excited to try some of these as well.

So you need a way to organize content for your students? When you go to the lab, or even in your classroom, do you want to direct your students to content, without resorting to announcing or writing down link addresses? Then you definitely want to look at edu.symbaloo.com.

Using Symbaloo, you set up a grid of links. Each block is a different link. For instance, the one to the side focuses on a variety of Discovery Education resources. Really easy to get started, and I think this will help all classrooms and teachers, especially since you can find many already created. A great free resource!